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Chapter 57: Sacrifice?

Margaret stared blankly down at the cliff where Raiden had fallen.

It was a canyon so deep she couldn\'t even see the bottom.

Unable to believe the scene that had just unfolded before her eyes, she muttered the boy\'s name as if in denial.

"Raiden...?"

Naturally, there was no answer.

Her mind froze, overwhelmed by the sudden tragedy.

Her red eyes trembled.

Margaret struggled to grasp reality, desperately seeking understanding.

They had jumped in an attempt to leap across the canyon.

And then, using the boy\'s unique magic, they had blinked through space.

Up until that point, there had been no problems.

Even Margaret, realizing Raiden\'s plan, had admired it as a brilliant idea.

It had seemed like a risky plan, but one with a good chance of success.

Until she saw the look of dismay on Raiden\'s face after they had blinked.

-Ah...

They had failed.

Frozen in mid-air above the seemingly bottomless abyss, Margaret belatedly remembered that Raiden had used Blink twice to protect her.

\'...I\'m going to die.\'

Margaret squeezed her eyes shut, her heart pounding in her chest.

As she braced herself for the inevitable price of failure, Raiden, who had been holding her tightly, suddenly threw her with all his might.

-You...?

She murmured weakly, watching the boy disappear from her grasp.

Raiden vanished without a word, leaving her behind.

Margaret stared down at the edge of the cliff, utterly devastated.

She tried to search for the boy in the depths of despair, but it was futile.

Raiden was already...

-Thud...

Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.

Raiden was dead.

It was a simple sentence, yet Margaret couldn\'t bring herself to comprehend it.

The boy who had been walking beside her just an hour ago was now gone from this world.

Frozen by the horrific sense of dissonance, Margaret couldn\'t move.

She remained there for a while, unable to do anything.

Her empty eyes fixated on the bottom of the canyon where the boy had vanished.

***

Meanwhile.

In the forest, about a kilometer away from the canyon where Margaret was.

Golden Boy and Violet found themselves facing off against seven black knights.

"Haha~ This is a bit of a pickle, isn\'t it?"

Golden Boy said with a wry smile, taking a step back.

He glanced at Violet, who was hiding behind him, and put on an exaggerated show.

"I thought the madman was supposed to draw their attention... Looks like a few of them followed us!"

"Eek...! W-What do we do? G-Golden Boy?"

Violet whimpered, shrinking behind him.

Her eyes were already welling up with tears.

Golden Boy shrugged with a carefree expression.

"Well~? Guess we die. It looks like Professor Lucas is already dead, how are we supposed to fight these guys?"

"W-W-What do you mean...!"

Even in this situation, Golden Boy couldn\'t help but tease, while Violet trembled in fear.

As they stood frozen, the undead knights slowly advanced towards them.

Golden Boy clenched his fist, letting out a soft sigh.

"Still too young to die..."

He took a stance as if preparing for battle.

Then, taking a deep breath, he muttered to Violet.

"Go."

"Huh?"

"Go on ahead. Back to base camp."

Violet\'s eyes widened at his nonchalant words.

Golden Boy, ignoring her reaction, kept his gaze fixed on the approaching figures of death.

"If you go a little further from here, you\'ll find the horses... Go to the camp and get the professors."

"B-But then... what about you, Golden Boy...!"

"You\'re such a handful. I\'m saying you\'re a liability in a fight, so get going."

Golden Boy chided the hesitant Violet, a relaxed smile gracing his lips.

"I\'ll hold them off for a bit and follow you."

"T-That\'s a death flag..."

"Just go, will you?"

-Clank, clank...

Even as they bickered, the undead continued their advance.

Finally forced to make a choice, Violet began to run with tears streaming down her face.

"I-I\'ll come back with the professors...!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Golden Boy watched Violet disappear into the bushes, then let out a breath.

As he chuckled, seemingly relieved, one of the knights, now within striking distance, spoke.

"For, your, noble, sacrifice, we, offer, you, respect."

"What was that? I thought the captain guy spoke fine, why\'s your tongue all messed up? Did it rot or something?"

Golden Boy taunted the knight despite their proximity, showing no signs of fear.

Mistaking his words for the bravado of a child, the undead knights pointed their swords at him.

"Foolish, child, do, not, beg, for, your, life... Death, comes, for, us, all."

Golden Boy stared at the knight, who was threatening him with a chilling voice, his expression blank.

Then, he closed his eyes and casually picked at his ear.

"Hey... You got it all wrong, you know?"

"What, do, you, mean?"

The knights tilted their heads in confusion at the boy\'s mischievous grin.

The next moment, Golden Boy wiped the playful smirk off his face and opened his eyes.

"You guys are picking a fight with the wrong person."

A sharp voice, loud enough to pierce their eardrums, struck the knights.

They instinctively took a step back, raising their weapons.

It was a primal fear.

The fear of a prey facing its predator.

The knights stared at \'it\' with trembling eyes.

The lighthearted boy who had been talking to them just moments ago was gone.

All that remained was a being radiating overwhelming power.

-Crackle, crackle...!

Blue electricity crackled around the boy\'s entire body.

At the same time, his blonde hair gradually turned white, as if bleached.

His blue eyes blazed with an ecstatic light.

"Whoa... This feels nostalgic! Haven\'t shown this form in years since I\'ve been hiding it!"

Golden Boy, now transformed, muttered, fiddling with the blue sparks dancing around his fingertips.

White hair and blue lightning.

One of the stunned knights gasped at the boy\'s distinctive appearance.

"Don\'t tell me... You\'re one of the Thunder Dragon\'s kin...?"

"Oh, you recognize it?"

"Of, course... We\'ve, had, our, fair, share, of, trouble, with, Dragons."

"Well~ I guess there were a lot of dragons back when you guys were alive, huh? You look like you\'re from about a thousand years ago."

"Are, there, not, many, Dragons, now?"

"They\'re pretty much extinct."

"I, see."

Golden Boy casually answered the knight\'s question and clenched his sparking fist.

His entire arm, including his hand, began to glow blue, emitting high-voltage electricity.

"Well then, enough chit-chat..."

-Bzzzt!!!

The boy\'s white hair fluttered in the surging lightning.

Golden Boy, with his usual light smile, snapped his fingers.

"Die."

With a short sentence of death, a primordial thunderbolt engulfed the black knights.

The blue lightning incinerated the bodies without a trace, leaving nothing but ash.

As the dust settled, only the white-haired boy stood there, calm and composed.

***

-Roooar...!

The raging sound of water filled the air.

The powerful current crashed against the rocks, roaring violently.

Raiden, who had lost consciousness due to the deafening noise, finally opened his eyes.

"Cough! Cough!!"

He woke up with a gasp, clutching his throat and coughing up a large amount of water.

After several dry heaves, he finally emptied his lungs of the river water that had filled them.

Only then could he regain his senses.

"Gasp... Gasp, ha..."

Raiden looked around, breathing heavily.

He was lying at the edge of the Mutan River.

He must have been swept here by the current.

Relieved that he hadn\'t been carried all the way out to sea, he collapsed back onto the ground.

"Cough! Cough! I\'m... I\'m alive..."

He mumbled, gasping for air.

Pain shot through his entire body.

Thanks to slowing down his fall, he had avoided being squashed like a tomato, but he was far from unharmed.

"Ha... Ha... This is... not the time to be lying down..."

Raiden gritted his teeth and forced his aching upper body up.

Exhaustion and excruciating muscle pain weighed him down.

The urge to lie back down was almost overwhelming, but he bit his lip and pushed it away.

"The others... I hope they got away safely..."

Raiden murmured with a worried expression.

He was less concerned about Golden Boy and Violet since they were together, but he couldn\'t shake off the worry about Margaret.

"I wonder if she\'s alright... She must think I\'m dead."

Like most kind-hearted people, Margaret was sensitive.

She might appear tough and strong on the outside, but she was more easily hurt than anyone else he knew.

For someone like her to witness his death...

The shock must have been immense.

"......I need to get back to her."

Raiden picked up Sorrow, which was lying on the ground, and used it as a walking stick.

He had to hurry.

Although he had blacked out, it didn\'t seem like that much time had passed.

Maybe an hour at most?

If the knights hadn\'t found a way to cross the canyon yet, they might still be lurking around the forest.

He needed to get out of here and rejoin the others at the base camp as soon as possible...

-Clank, clank, clank...

As Raiden limped through the trees, a familiar sound reached his ears.

The clanging of metal against metal.

"......Don\'t tell me."

He stiffened, turning his head towards the source of the sound.

"Oh... come on, this is just unfair..."

There, staring at him with glowing red eyes, were more undead knights.

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